Thomas Arnold
| birth_place = Staines, Surrey]], England | death_date = November | death_place = Dublin, Ireland | occupation = school inspector, teacher, writer, academic | nationality = British | period = Victorian | genre = non-fiction | subject = History of literature | movement = | spouse = Julia Sorell (1826–1888); Josephine Benison | partner = | children = 9 children, of whom 5 lived to adulthood | relatives = Thomas Arnold (father), Matthew Arnold (brother), Mary Augusta Ward (daughter), Julian Huxley (grandson), Aldous Huxley (grandson) | influences = | influenced = | signature = | website = }} Thomas Arnold (30 November 1823 - 12 November 1900), also known as Thomas Arnold the Younger, was an English literary critic and academic. Life Arnold was the 2nd son of Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School, and younger brother of poet Matthew Arnold. After gaining a first class degree at University College, Oxford, Arnold grew discontented with Victorian Britain and attempted to take up farming in New Zealand. Failing to make a success of this career, in 1850 he moved to Tasmania, having been invited to take the job of Inspector of Schools by Governor William Denison. Soon after arriving in Hobart, he fell in love with and married Julia Sorell, granddaughter of former Governor William Sorell. They had nine children (four of whom died young), among them: Mary, who became a novelist under the name Mrs Humphry Ward; Julia, who married Leonard Huxley, the son of Thomas, and gave birth to Julian and Aldous; and William Thomas the journalist. After being widowed in 1888, Arnold in 1890 married for a second time, to Josephine Benison, daughter of James Benison, Ballyconnell, County Cavan, Ireland. While in Tasmania Arnold converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, a move which angered his Protestant wife sufficiently to cause her to smash the windows of the chapel during his confirmation. The marriage was to be plagued by domestic strife over religious loyalty until Julia's death. At the time Tasmania would not employ Catholics in senior civil service positions, and so in 1857 the family moved back to England. Arnold took a job teaching English literature at the Catholic University in Dublin, and wrote A Manual of English Literature (1862), which became a standard textbook. He resigned from the university in 1862 to become head of classics at The Oratory School in Birmingham. He left in 1865, when a letter he had written insisting that he would need a higher salary to continue at the school was interpreted by Cardinal Newman as a tendering of resignation. Arnold opened a private tutoring establishment in Oxford, and began to attend Church of England services. He edited a number of important literary works, including Beowulf. In 1876 he stood for election to the Chair of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. Finding that some supporters were campaigning for him as the "Anglican" candidate, he felt this put him in a false position; on the eve of the election he announced his intention of being reconciled to the Catholic Church. It is unlikely that this had much effect on the election, but family tradition maintained that he had cast away a great opportunity for a scruple. After a period of financial hardship, in which his main occupation was editorial work for the Rolls Series, Arnold returned to Dublin in 1882 as professor of English literature at University College, teaching to the end of his life in 1900. One of his last students was James Joyce. Publications Non-fiction *''A Manual of English Literature: Historical and critical. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1862. *''Chaucer to Wordsworth: A short history of English literature to the present day. London: Thomas Murby, 1868. *''The Revival of the Faculties at Oxford''. London: J. Parker, 1872. *''Catholic Higher Education in Ireland''. Dublin: M.H. Gill, 1897. *''Notes on Beowulf''. London & New York: Longmans, Green, 1898. *''Passages in a Wandering Life. London: Edward Arnold, 1900. Edited *John Wycliffe, ''Select English Works of John Wyclif; from original manuscripts. (3 volumes), Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1869–1871. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III *Joseph Addison. Selections from Addison’s Papers Contributed to the Spectator. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1875. *''Beowulf: A heroic poem of the eighth century, with a translation''. London: Longmans, Green, 1876. *Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, Henrici Archidiaconi Huntendunensis Historia Anglorum: The History of the English, by Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, from A.D. 55 to A.D. 1154. London: Longman (Chronicles and memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages Series) 74. London: Longman, 1879. *''English Poetry and Prose: A collection of illustrative passages from the writings of English authors, commencing in the Anglo-Saxon period, and brought down to the present time''. 2nd edition, London: Longmans, Green, 1882. **published in U.S. as English Literature, 596-1832. New York: D. Appleton, 1879. *Simon of Durham, Symeonis monachi opera omnia. (2 volumes), London: Longman (Rolls Series 75). Volume I, 1882; Volume II, 1885. *''Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbe''. (3 volumes), London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, for H.M. Stationery Office, 1890-1896. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III *''A Catholic Dictionary'' (with William Addis). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1884; New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1884. *John Dryden, An Essay of Dramatic Poetry. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1905. Letters *''New Zealand Letters of Thomas Arnold the Younger; with further letters from Van Diemen's Land, and letters of Arthur Hugh Clough, 1847-1851'' (edited by James M. Bertram). Auckland: Auckland University Press / Wellington & London: Oxford University Press, 1966. *''The Letters of Thomas Arnold the Younger, 1850-1900'' (edited by James M. Bertram). Auckland: Auckland University Press / London: Oxford University Press, 1980. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Thomas Arnold 1900, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 23, 2016. See also *List of literary critics References * Bernard Bergonzi, “Arnold, Thomas (1823–1900),” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Available online to subscribers. Accessed 31 December 2007. * Bernard Bergonzi, A Victorian Wanderer The Life of Thomas Arnold the Younger. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-925741-8. OUP link. * P.A. Howell. Thomas Arnold the younger in Van Diemen’s Land. Tasmania: Tasmanian Historical Research Association, 1964. * James Bertram, ed., New Zealand Letters of Thomas Arnold the younger, with further letters from Van Diemen’s land and letters of Arthur Hugh Clough, 1847-1851. London and Wellington: University of Auckland, Oxford University Press, 1966. * Julian Huxley, Memories. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1970. * Notes External links ;Books *Thomas Arnold at the Online Books Page ;About *Arnold, Thomas (1823-1901) in the Dictionary of Literary Biography *Arnold, Thomas (1823-1900) in the Australian Dictionary of Biography Category:1823 births Category:1900 deaths Category:Huxley family Category:English academics Category:Alumni of University College, Oxford Category:English Roman Catholics Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism